An Expression of Community
2022 NACo Achievement Award Winner
Pottawattamie County, Iowa, IA
Best In Category
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About the Program
Category: Health (Best in Category)
Year: 2022
In response to the early-2020 arrival of COVID-19 in Council Bluffs, IA, the Pottawattamie County Public Health Department (PCPH) and its âPublic Health Leadership Teamâ (âPHLTâ) planned and executed a high-profile series of local, no-cost mass-vaccination clinics that ran from December 2020 to May 2021, and saw 55,000+ doses distributed to some 30,000 area residents. In all, 38 of these events were offered, in order to provide vaccination opportunities to as many people as possible; the first clinic served about 500 attendees, with this daily total soon climbing to 3,000. The PHLTâs goal was to get everyone âin and out within 20 minutesââa standard that was reached almost without exception. In delivering these clinics, the PHLT combined existing resources (such as the venue, a large, multi-purpose facility) with an innovative new four-step vaccine-delivery protocol to make these clinics available to people from throughout the area. Additionally, the involvement of the residents of Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County proved essential here; indeed, to a great extent, the clinics were staffed, delivered, and supported by the local volunteer, non-profit, and business communitiesâalong with elected officials, and employees from other County departments.